1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an upright vacuum cleaner, and, more particularly, to an upright vacuum cleaner having a movement control grip that is capable of performing switch between automatic operation mode and manual operation mode on the movement control grip.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional upright vacuum cleaner. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional upright vacuum cleaner comprises: an upright cleaner body 100 for suctioning air though a suction nozzle 101 and filtering the air to remove foreign matter from the air; a drive unit 200 mounted in the cleaner body 100 for driving the cleaner body 100 such that the cleaner body 100 can be moved forward or rearward; a grip 300 slidably mounted to the upper end of the cleaner body 100, the grip 300 having a sensor 301 for sensing the forward or rearward movement direction of the grip 300; a control unit 400 for controlling the operation of the drive unit 200 such that the cleaner body 100 can be moved forward or rearward based on the forward or rearward movement direction of the grip 300 sensed by the sensor 301.
The drive unit 200 comprises: a drive motor 201 mounted in the cleaner body 100; a drive shaft 202 rotatable in the forward or reverse direction by the drive motor 201; and drive wheels 203 mounted at opposite ends of the drive shaft 202, respectively.
When a user pushes or pulls the grip 300 of the conventional upright vacuum cleaner while holding the grip 300, the forward or rearward movement direction of the grip 300 is sensed by the sensor 301. The sensed information is input to the control unit 400, which rotates the drive motor 201 in the forward or reverse direction based on the sensed information.
However, the sliding grip of the conventional upright vacuum cleaner comprises a plurality of parts, including resilient members, which are connected to one another. As a result, the structure of the grip is very complicated, and therefore, the assembly of the grip takes a great deal of time. Furthermore, the number of parts constituting the grip is large, and therefore, manufacturing costs of the grip are increased.